| 55 ENGINEERING SOREC - Todd Engineering Skills, equipment service key to success Todd Engineering provides specialist industrial and commercial services and general engineering with the support of a team that has an enviable breadth and depth of skills and experience. T T Russell Fredric Todd Engineering is marking 20 years in business this year with co-director Mike Todd noting the valuable relationships developed with clients, suppliers and staff as a significant contributor to its success and longevity. “They are all equally important. Some of our suppliers have become our customers and they recommend us to people and it’s all one big circle. We treat everybody with respect and we seem to go well from it.” From its Dunedin workshop, the company provides specialist industrial and commercial services and general engineering with the support of a team that has an enviable breadth and depth of skills and experience. Mike’s wife Louise is a co-director and works in accounts and administration, while operations manager Mitch Lavender is also a shareholder. Todd Engineering employs 25 staff and boasts an extremely well-equipped workshop in South Dunedin. It specialises in primary-food processing projects, industrial shutdowns and overhauls and structural steel fabrication. “I think we’ve done really well and got into new fields; once we got our own designers we started to get into another market through designing, manufacturing and installing, which created a point of difference and gave us an advantage.” Significant industrial clients includes Pan Pac Forest Products, Silver Fern Farms, OceaniaGold and Alliance and its work often involves manufacturing bespoke, complex equipment for specialised processes. This specialisation is enabled by a variety of high-end machinery, along with staff members that have the skills to match. These include maintenance fitters, who have diverse skill-sets and need to be great problem-solvers when working on jobs off-site. Todd Engineering is also preferred structural steel supplier to Amalgamated Builders, Stewart Construction, Stevenson Williams and many other local builders. Equipment purchases and workshop upgrades have made for a busy couple of years at Todd Engineering. A five-tonne gantry crane was installed in June to provide additional lifting capacity in one of its two workshop buildings to complement its two existing three-tonners. Along with the crane, during the past 12 months Todd Engineering has invested in a new Mazak CNC lathe with an automatic bar feeder, an OMAX Waterjet cutter, a Jessey manual lathe, a 100-ton bearing press, a keyway broaching press, a radial arm drill capable of drilling 50mm holes, and an engine-driven Lincoln 500amp generator/welder/compressor. This impressive new line-up complements Todd Engineering’s existing top-of-the-line Trumpf 120- tonne brake press, guillotines, plate rolls and lathes. The addition of the water jet cutter is especially strategic, Mike says. “It makes us more independent and it complements our press because we can cut and press a wide variety of material. We previously outsourced the cutting so we thought we would offer a one-stopshop so we can now cut, press, roll and weld.” The machine can cut steel, stainless steel, aluminium and plastic, glass and stone, and while there are other options, the water jet creates a neater, more finished product and there is no negative effect of heat on materials. Another key part of the company’s business strategy is employing one or two apprentices each year and seven apprentices are currently at various stages of their training. “We want to train our own staff, the work we’re doing is pretty unique and we’ve got a pretty unique range of equipment.” Mike is a committee member of SOREC, the Southland and Otago Regional Engineering Collective, which promotes engineering trade careers, provides business development support and advocates collaboratively to promote engineering. “We are focusing on getting more of a talent pool coming into engineering. People don’t realise that engineering is so diverse and it’s a really interesting field. We are just trying to promote ourselves a bit better.” Specialists in Commercial Construction 03 474 1392 | 72 Willis Street, Dunedin | dunedin@abl.co.nz www.abl.co.nz Dunedin - Ph: 03 477 1999 Proudly Supporting Todd Engineering Transport Ltd • General Cartage • Trombone Trailer • Container & Artic Work • Fly Jib • Crane Trucks with Winches & Man Bucket I can help you. Call 0226272993 or john.booth@primestrategies.co.nz www.primestrategies.co.nz John Booth - Business Advisor Proudly supporting Todd Engineering Experienced, Specialist Business Advice Whether you are: • Starting a new business • Feeling you’re stuck working IN rather than ON your business • Struggling tomaintain your business growthmomentum
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